I just watched "Xs and Omar" yesterday and what I like most about the show is you get some great insight on guys that are in the team's thoughts and plans, but no where else on news outlets and blogs.

Apparently, Safety prospect AJ Hendy is showing real promise and that's the reason behind his promotion late last season. It sounds like he is on the cusp, and with a strong camp could actually win a job somewhere in the secondary.

I believe we drafted him last year, or he was an UDFA, I will have to look him up in Nawrocki's guide for any info I can glean. At 6 feet, 209 lbs good size for the position, hoping he is more of a free safety type player as we seem to have a lot on the strong side skill set behind Jones.

I've liked him all along and have mentioned him several times on the board. I'm still shocked that the Phins didn't give him a chance last season, while Thomas and Rambo were stinking up the joint. I don't know that he's going to be a starter, but maybe he can earn a role in 'big nickle' or dime packages.

My bad! I did not recall that, but good to hear some corroborating evidence.

Safety in our defense (especially next to R Jones) is mentally challenging. What Omar said is he knows what he's doing now. One season isn't too much to ask for a rookie playing safety. Let's hope he has a great camp!

Hendy stood out a bit to me in preseason. Even playing with and against scrubs, he looked like he belonged in the NFL.

I would have thrown him into the fire last season. Rambo was playing as poorly as a safety could possibly play down the stretch. Hendy could not have been worse, and may have been better - and the experience would have helped him moving forward.

To offer a counter point, we were in the middle of a (successful) playoff run, and even one or two blown coverages could very well have made the difference in one of the games where we won by the narrowest of margins.

Given how the coaching staff regularly benched high priced vets in favor of others (Mario Williams one example), I can only conclude that Hendy was not passing their coverage tests, or showing he could fully translate classroom work to the field.

It's an interesting discussion given our interest in several safety prospects, followed by the drafting of none, nor the signing of one in UDFA. I'm sure there were a few we liked, but as the draft board fell none of them must have come up as the best player available. It's also possible none were regarded as highly as the team views Hendy.

white1 wrote:To offer a counter point, we were in the middle of a (successful) playoff run, and even one or two blown coverages could very well have made the difference in one of the games where we won by the narrowest of margins.

Given how the coaching staff regularly benched high priced vets in favor of others (Mario Williams one example), I can only conclude that Hendy was not passing their coverage tests, or showing he could fully translate classroom work to the field.

Oh, I'm sure that's exactly what happened. It's just not a philosophy I agree with. My take is - I already know that Rambo is going to get toasted all day every day by every team we face...but I don't know what I'll get from Hendy. For me, I'd prefer to go with the unknown rookie who may be bad or good, as opposed to the known veteran who I know sucks and won't be on the team the following season. Hell, the game ended months ago and the Steelers are STILL beating Rambo! LOL

white1 wrote:It's an interesting discussion given our interest in several safety prospects, followed by the drafting of none, nor the signing of one in UDFA. I'm sure there were a few we liked, but as the draft board fell none of them must have come up as the best player available. It's also possible none were regarded as highly as the team views Hendy.

This was a VERY deep draft for safeties IMO. Hendy is no reason to pass on all of them...at the very least we could have taken a safety instead of Ford, who will be a #5 or 6 wide receiver on this roster - at best.

white1 wrote:I said it after the first round and I'll say it again, I can't understand why the team would draft YET ANOTHER receiver given the logjam we seem to have at that position.

Then again.... I really do like some of the circus catches I've seen on the highlight videos I've watched!

Like I said, they targeted specific players and I guess Ford was one of those "must have" players. I suppose Ford could win the #4 job over Carroo, but still - wouldn't a receiver with punt/return skills have made much more sense???

at the very least we could have taken a safety instead of Ford, who will be a #5 or 6 wide receiver on this roster - at best.

I said it after the first round and I'll say it again, I can't understand why the team would draft YET ANOTHER receiver given the logjam we seem to have at that position.

Then again.... I really do like some of the circus catches I've seen on the highlight videos I've watched!

I have to agree, the WR corp is very loaded and the only reason they would draft another WR is because they don't trust the ones that they have. Parker could easily get benched or Carroo is not what they thought he was going to be.